Even though Black Friday is several weeks away (eleven, for those of you who aren’t keeping track), now’s the optimal time to make sure that your website is ready to handle the influx of Black Friday shoppers. Only this year, your focus shouldn’t be just on computer-based visitors, but mobile-based visitors. With more mobile ads in place and more users relying on their mobile devices to do searches and even complete transactions, it makes sense to make sure that your website can provide them with an optimal mobile experience in time for the holiday shopping season.

Google has put together several forecasts about this upcoming holiday season, based on historical growth rates of the past. Worth noting:

15% of all searches for “Black Friday” are going to come from smartphones and tablets

44% of searches for last minute gift ideas and store locations and hours will come from smartphones and tablets

over 65% of users of smartphones and tablets report that they have located and successfully purchased an item at a physical store location, just by using their cellphone or tablet

more than 33% of holiday shoppers who own high-end mobile devices will be starting their holiday shopping before Black Friday

What does all of these statistics and forecasts and analyzed data mean for you, the marketer? It means that now is the time to optimize your site for an influx of holiday traffic, and for mobile users wishing to not only search your store from their mobile devices, but make purchases, too. Mobile advertising and optimization should be kept high on your to-do list.

About the Author

"Catherine has is amazing in developing our website optimization. Our website's organic search and ranking improved once we hired Catherine, SEOwhat.com. After years of spending on paid search (Google & Yahoo), Catherine helped us achieve great organic search results within 6 months from working with her. Great attitude and an amazing person to work with. We hope to continue working with Catherine for many years to come."